A blog about digital rhetoric that asks the burning questions about electronic bureaucracy and institutional subversion on the Internet.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Reality Checkered Past

I would argue that the White House is making a fundamental rhetorical mistake by devoting some of its website to a section called "Reality Check." Those who remember how the White House of George W. Bush had a regular feature called "Setting the Record Straight" that took issue with the coverage of the administration in the New York Times or the Washington Post might advise the Executive Branch to stick to the high ground of the debate and not engage with the discourses of distortion. Of course, the Bush administration produced several of these combative subsites at different federal agencies, which included "Mythbusters" at the TSA.